EggsRific

I was walking through the isles of the local dollar store after gorging on as many of the $1 star wars rockets as I could fit in a cart :-) and while in line I saw this Bright Pink Inflatable Easter Egg with little duckies on it.  Hmmm I was thinking should I get some of these for the house and then it HITS me.  Inflatable rocket ! Drool Drool.

I buy one for a $1

Then I get to thinking - I fly max D engines (cost) so how do I get something this draggy to any kind of altitude on a D. Balsa fins are cheap enough but VERY heavy unless I make then so thin that they are unlikely to survive a single flight.  I am walking through the grocery store with my mom and I see someone behind the deli counter wrapping meat in a meat tray and it dawns on me that THEY pack there own meat in meat trays meaning they MUST have meat trays.  Another $1 later and I have 4 large meat trays. I would have preferred the Yellow meat tray (more on theme with the design) but white was the only color that was Smooth on both sides.

That Night I am thinking how to FLy this thing. and next to me in the car is one of many tubes I scavenged from a local 5&10 closing down - Cores to the racks of paper and plastic arts and craft stuff they got.  These tubes were a wee bigger than 29mm and not bad on strength.  Better yet Light and they were Free anyway.

Mounting The Tube was going to be tough since I had to SEAL it for it to hold air since the Egg had to be TIGHT since that was the integrity of the whole rocket.  The Egg actually WAS the structure.

I made the tube long enough to go all the way to the front.  I could not secure it to the front since it would tear off from inflating and deflating. Also by having it unattached to the front I could wiggle it around to center the thrust line.

I was going to use a normal piece of 24mm tubing for the MMT but I forgot to bring any.  I grabbed the nearest Legal pad and cut a square and made one.

Here is the neat Idea I came up with for recovery.  I rolled paper gluing as I rolled into 3 small rolls until I had three little pencils of paper thick enough to center the 24mm MMT I fashioned in the tube.

I glue these to the MMT like fins and then friction fit this into the Larger core tube. Then glued it into place. (to allow the ejection gases to vent out the back.  SInce if you look at it for just a moment you will realize the rear is the only place to eject anything.

I confirmed the Egg had NO leaks before cutting. (don't want any more problems than I need) I did find one leak and I sealed it. BOy would that have been a nightmare later on.

I then Cut open my egg.  I slid the Core inside and centered it as best I could.  I then began tacking the Hole to the Core. SLowing going opposite side to side to keep it even.

Once it was tacked all the way around I smeared some Epoxy on it to really seal it good. I then partially inflated it so it would be in the proper orientation (the egg surface) when the Epoxy cured. (I later found epoxy does NOT stick all that well to this stuff I will scuff it well on the next try.)

Once the epoxy set the hard part was upon me - How to attach the fins. I chose to epoxy except this time I smarted up and scuffed the lining a bit first.  The Egg has 4 seams so Where to attach the fins was cake. I wanted the fins to arch back as much as I could BUT I also wanted the nice curvy shape so it was a compromise. IE the more severely I laid them back the more ungainly it would look BUT the less Nose Weight would be needed to make it stable.

When They dried I inflated it and Wow it was a rocket. Then it began to sag and then Plop is fell over as it sagged to much to hold its shape. Grrr the next hour was spent finding and sealing all the holes.

Apparently what happened was my Core tube PLUG was leaking.

I stuck in a piece of Foam Rubber I had lying in my box and then smothered the top with CA - apparently the CA wicked into the Foam faster than I could Accelerate it so it was not airtight. On a hunch that this was the problem I stuck in a motor and then loosely placed tape over the vents for the ejection.  Heh it held sort of.  I had to give it a little more mouth to mouth about once a minute. But it held rigid more than long enough to fly :-)

I can guarantee this rocket to be worth $1.04 since I got 4 quarters and 4 pennies taped to the nose

At the field I realized I did not make plans for a launch lug Grrrrr. Grrrr Double Grrrr

I tape on a large piece of 10.5mm tube to one side and down the fin. I stuck on a larger tube to help prevent the inevitable biding from having the lug so far from the center line. (still working on that)

We Tried 5 times to launch the critter. Kept blowing igniters (including 2 igniter man igniters wow !!)

Finally on the 6th try I gave it one last mouth to mouth (hope no one got that on tape :-) and said let her rip.

I was ready to duck and it lit. Not only did it fly but it flew REALLY well !! I was impressed. IT arched and blew it extra gas :-) The venting works and down it came.  Bounce (Bounce recovery)

About ten seconds after picking it up a Literal WALL of wind of what I figure was at least 30mph NAILED US.  After a few second we realized it was NOT going away.  This was NO gust It just did not stopped.  That scrubbed the launch for us.  It was almost as if mother was shocked and said how dare you fly such a abomination of aerodynamics and said NO more and hit us with the wind. :-)

Now that I know the design is Worth building IE went high enough. I will build another with a little more thought. It was a wee fast for bounce recovery. The Inflated took most of the energy quite well but it still crunched the core tube a little. (I will pop a chute or few streamer out the back.  The streamers would look cooler but I think the chute will be easier and not weigh as much in the rear.

I am still working on the launch lug issue.  I could run one along the core and Out the top and then seal it there. But I was kind of trying not to pierce the Egg anywhere except the rear for the engine. I don't know having a hole at the top takes something away from it to me.  I will have to think about it - make a custom tower to lob it from.